Sometimes it is necessary for scientists
to observe how we respond to problems in order to learn how to help us
in the future. That is what two Virginia Tech psychologists are doing to
determine how to help children respond to disasters.

In addition to the loss of a home and favorite
possessions, a fire can have a long-term negative impact on children and their
families. "Not only does it lead to depression and anxiety, but it can
sometimes result in post-traumatic-stress disorder," says Russell
T. Jones.

Jones and Thomas
Ollendick bring many years of research together to study the impact of
residential fires on children, adolescents, and their parents, with the eventual
goal of developing treatment programs for the victims of fires. Jones' research
has been primarily to help children avoid being injured in a fire; Ollendick
has been doing research on anxiety disorders in children.

Jones' has assessed the impact of disasters
on children, including those affected by wildfires in Santa Barbara, Calif.,
and Hurricane Andrew. He and his graduate students have determined that
two factors enabled children to learn and retain skills for safely evacuating
a burning building:

Children who are taught to monitor,
evaluate, and reward their evacuation performance do better than those
not given that skill.

Children who are encouraged to talk
about the reasons for certain behaviors, make associations between previous
information and the information they are to learn, and to ask questions
about the new information are more likely to retain the evacuation skills.

From that research, Jones developed
and teaches an intervention strategy called Rehearsal-Plus that can be
used not only with fires, but with other emergency responses such as dialing
for help, performing CPR, and refusing drugs.

In his research on anxiety disorders,
Ollendick has worked with children who have experienced such traumas as
the death of parents, an automobile accident, or a significant loss, such
as a severe injury.

Ollendick and Jones are conducting their
research in several cities, including Blacksburg, Roanoke, Danville, Lynchburg,
Charlottesville, Martinsville, and Richmond. They are interviewing people
aged 8-18 who have been in a fire in which there was loss of at least 25
percent of the home.

The researchers will determine what
happened during the fire and the level of trauma the victims experienced.
Six months later and one year later, they will interview victims again
to determine the path of recovery, or how they have responded to the situation.
"We will look across ages and across time." Jones explains.

The researchers will look at whether
the victims developed post-traumatic-stress disorder, fears and phobias,
generalized anxiety disorders, depression, or other symptoms of psychopathology.
They will determine the degree of exposure, or how close the victims were
to the disaster, and the amount of loss, which has an impact on the degree
of negativity of the response to the situation.

Jones and Ollendick also will look
at the relationship between the way the parents function during the trauma
and the way the children function. "If parents respond poorly and
develop symptoms," Jones says, "likely the children will."

Jones knows that children who have
been involved in a fire frequently have difficulty falling asleep or staying
asleep. They may have nightmares about the event, relive it in their minds,
have flashbacks, become startled more easily by certain events, or become
hypervigilent. They may avoid the scene of the fire and even people associated
with the event. They may be more irritable and have outbursts of anger.
They may have difficulty concentrating. Some suffer intense psychiatric
distress.

"It can also bring a loss of self
esteem if they feel there are things they should have done and didn't do,"
Jones says. "They didn't know what to do. I think the research that
has preceded this is so important because people don't know what to do
in fires and blame themselves for injury and loss resulting from those
fires."

Jones has taught children as young
as age three - as well as those in high school, the elderly, the mentally
handicapped, and the blind - what to do in case of fire. "But I would
like to do it more systematically," he says.

While knowing what to do is extremely
important, treatment after a fire is also important, Jones says. He is
a member of the American Psychological Association committee that plans
to write policies to ensure that children who have encountered a disaster
will receive appropriate treatment.

Documenting the consequences of fire-related
disasters on children and their families will enable Jones and Ollendick
to develop better treatment strategies to help the children and their families
recover from the fires. The National Institute of Mental Health has awarded
the Virginia Tech psychology professors $1.2 million to conduct the research.